Seattle Times to advertise for McKenna on its own dime

The Seattle Times announced Wednesday that it will develop and run ads for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna as an “independent expenditure” that is supposed to show the value of political advertising in newspapers.

The news, three weeks before the November election — and appearance of a big Times-created McKenna ad on page B6 of the newspaper’s Wednesday editions — immediately raised two questions:

Can Seattle Times reporters and editors be trusted to fairly cover McKenna’s opponent Jay Inslee? Can the newspaper fairly report on a campaign where the Times has a vested financial interest in the outcome?

“There is absolutely no interface between our news coverage and this effort: We realize some people may question the approach, but we hope they will give us the benefit of the doubt as we try an innovative approach to new revenue and, at the same time, raise awareness of the credibility and effectiveness of newspaper advertising for political campaigns,” Jill Mackie, the Times’ vice president for public affairs, said in an e-mail.

Jim Brunner, a Times political reporter, tweeted a response he received from Fairview Fannie’s executive editor David Boardman: “The news department was not part of the discussion or decision to do this.” (Brunner was panelist in a televised Inslee-McKenna debate on Tuesday night.)

But Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Inslee campaign, said in a statement: “It is difficult to believe that none of the Times supposedly neutral newsroom resources were used in this partisan ad.”

In announcing the “Seattle Times Initiative for Political Newspaper Advertising,” the newspaper stated:

“Our involvement in this (McKenna-Inslee) race will be via an independent expenditure in which The Seattle Times runs ads that have in no way been coordinated with the McKenna campaign. As required by law, we will report such contributions to the Public Disclosure Commission.

“Independent expenditures are allowed under Washington State law and are not subject to limits on spending.”

The ad on B6 extolled McKenna as an architect of “change that will make us all proud.” It carried the disclaimer that the ad was paid for by the Seattle Times and “no candidate paid for this ad.”

The Times is also making an “in kind donation of ad space” to the Washington United for Marriage, the campaign to approve Referendum 74 and same-sex marriage on the November ballot.

“This political advertising initiative was developed as a one-time approach for this election to demonstrate the effectiveness of political advertising in the Seattle Times,” Fairview Fannie added in its statement.

The Seattle Times has a long tradition of endorsing and promoting Republican candidates for governor.

It twice backed Republican Dino Rossi against incumbent Gov. Chris Gregoire. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the newspaper supported GOP Gov. Dan Evans as well as Gov. John Spellman, the last Republican to hold the state’s top executive job.

The newspaper, in years gone by, has allowed its biases to leave the editorial page for the front page. It ran major front-page hit pieces on Democratic Gov. Al Rosellini in 1964, and gave front-page play to the gambling activities of 1968 Democratic gubernatorial candidate John O’Connell.

A few newspapers elsewhere in the country — notably the right-wing Manchester Union-Leader in New Hampshire — have run front-page editorials boosting their choices for public office. When the Union-Leader’s man lost, its publisher William Loeb would sometimes take to the front page to upbraid Granite State voters.

But the Times initiative is, apparently, entirely new.

The newspaper is claiming that advertising on its pages is “affordable and effective as 88 percent of Seattle Times readers are registered voters,” adding: “It provides more for voters — words that don’t disappear so people can evaluate them.”

The reception in Democratic-leaning Seattle and King County to its largest newspaper campaigning for a Republican candidate will also be something for the Times to measure. The August primary saw McKenna swamped in King County by a nearly three-to-two margin.